Daily Archives: November 27, 2008

US teachers in the Galapagos classroom. Photo by Pete Oxford

The Galapagos Islands are undoubtedly one of the most unique ecological sites in the world—Darwin could’ve told you that. And he did. But the legacy he began in biological education has found a strange place in the land that first inspired him.

“The priests here teach evolution in church,” our tour guide tells us at the visitor’s center on San Cristobal, Galapagos’ capitol island. And if that sounds like a bizarre and complex situation in itself, just wait until you hear

Photo by Pete Oxford

San Cristobal transforms from one of the most arid, barren-looking tropical islands you could imagine to a verdant tropical beauty in about half an hour. We’re driving on the muddy roads through the Galapagos‘ capitol island en route to its highlands, and it seems a couple hundred meters of elevation has made a world of difference. Exotic-looking miconia plants and ferns cover the hillsides we pass, thorny blackberry limbs whip at the bus windows, and we drive by a freshwater lagoon draped in dark red algae.

Our destination is Puerta

When Coca-Cola showed off its sustainability chops this summer at the Beijing Olympic Games, one of its pledges grabbed my attention: recognizing growing concerns about water around the globe (and in Beijing) and its own heavy water footprint, the company had the remarkable ambition

to return to communities and to nature

It is hard to build in Washington DC; there is a lot of history and a lot of approvals required. Surprisingly, it is easier to build there than it is the Canadian wilderness; that is what philanthropist Joseph Hirshhorn found out when he tried to build a new town “planned towards happy living” north of Lake Huron, with Philip Johnson as his architect. Blake Gopnik writes in the Washington Post:

Joe Hirshhorn, a child of the tenements, had made

ECONA, not to be confused with the Econo or the ECO Showerdrop, is a water-saving device that could change the way you view (literally!) your water consumption at home. This gadget won the Concurso Nuevo Diseño 2008 (New Design Competition) in the ecodesign category. The logo for the Competition, which also has interior design, furniture, and urban environment categories can

If you are an eco entrepreneur, imagine all the people who work around you are so too. Wouldn’t that be super productive, highly motivating and very efficient? Well, such a space exists in New York It is called Green Spaces, and brings together leading green entrepreneurs by offering shared work space, resources and a community to launch their business. So how does it work?

Wired appears impressed at the growth and change in turkeys and corn;

Most everything on your plate has undergone tremendous genetic change under the intense selective pressures of industrial farming. Pilgrims and American Indians ate foods called corn and turkey, but the actual organisms they consumed didn’t look or taste much at all like our modern variants do.

I rather miss being able to buy anything other that flavourless but sweet peaches’n cream corn, and do prefer the free range organic turkey we ate on our Thanksgiving, but peoples’ tastes have evidently changed.

This was written for the Huffington Post on Canadian Thanksgiving two months ago. Some things have changed since then, (primarily elections) but I thought it worth reprising here.

Every year we celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with an extraordinary family that lives all year round on a small lake just outside of Algonquin Park in Ontario. They don’t keep a TV or computer while home-schooling the kids, but the house is full of books and music, such incredible music, just listening to them all sing Grace brings me to tears.

After a wonderful dinner of local organic turkey and all of the

Having a Commissioner for the Environment or an Environment Minister in charge of all the issues we care about here at Treehugger seems like a good idea. During his hearing with the European Parliament, Stavros Dimas announced four main priorities for his term in office: climate change, biodiversity, public health and sustainability. Here in Japan, Tetsuo Saito from the small New Komeito party has come up with a number of interesting proposals. Just last week, he told NHK

We recycle earlier Thanksgiving posts. Collin Dunn writes:

Today is Turkey Day (or Tofurky Day, depending on your gastronomic persuasion) here in the States, where the holiday allows us a day to gather with family and friends, gorge on food and drink and pause for a moment to reflect on another year gone by. Sometime between carving the bird and slicing pumpkin pie, we’ll recommend a read through Corby Kummer’s op-ed in today’s 2006’s New York Times about the implications of global warming on America’s native food cultu